


hold on

by ventusus



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, novel compliant, takes place during kh2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-10
Updated: 2016-11-10
Packaged: 2018-08-30 05:21:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 669
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8520064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ventusus/pseuds/ventusus
Summary: All it takes is a touch. It feels like static shock when she almost eagerly places her finger on the darkness in between the chains. She flinches at the contact, instantly growing uneasy because she’s never gotten an unwelcome reaction like that; not with Riku’s darkness, nor Terra’s. The hairs on her body are standing on end and a chill shoots down her spine. Such terrifying darkness, she thinks.
(or, while exploring the hearts connected to Sora, Naminé finds Vanitas within Ventus)





	

**Author's Note:**

> a little something for one of my best friends [megan](http://naminay.tumblr.com/) for her birthday ♡

It takes some digging, but Naminé manages to find Vanitas.

Something had been unusual about Ventus’s heart when she, with the most careful and gentle touch, reached into his fragile, repairing heart after following the connection from Sora’s strong and bright one. A look into Ventus’s damaged memories had told her the tale of his violent, hateful other half which led her to believe he may have been the cause of the abnormality she felt.

So, cautiously as to not disrupt Ventus’s healing process, she had searched.

When she finds him—an orb of swirling darkness with a faint shimmer of purple when the light from Ventus’s heart hits it—he’s nestled deeply in between Ventus’s heart strings, wrapped in chains of light. It’s Sora, she realizes when she gently prods a chain link. His connection is still protecting Ventus.

Vanitas is in a similar state to Ventus. Dormant, broken, healing. His pieces are coming back together at a slower rate than Ventus’s, however, he’s able to leech off of his own connection to Sora for help. The connection is indirect and faint, but still reachable. There’s a will to survive. Is this how he’s managed to hold his own independent identity together despite being forced to return to Ventus?

He shouldn’t be. Naminé, being when she’s not supposed to, knows this. He isn’t supposed to exist—like Roxas, like herself. He’s a special case, though; a different kind of special than herself or Roxas. Does it mean all she’s been told about those who aren’t supposed to exist doesn’t apply to him? She wants to know, _has_ to.

All it takes is a touch. It feels like static shock when she almost eagerly places her finger on the darkness in between the chains. She flinches at the contact, instantly growing uneasy because she’s never gotten an unwelcome reaction like that; not with Riku’s darkness, nor Terra’s. The hairs on her body are standing on end and a chill shoots down her spine. _Such terrifying darkness_ , she thinks.

It seems her activity has stirred him. He’s resistant, but not immune. It doesn’t take long for her to get through. She feels ashamed for forcing herself in, having promised herself that Roxas would be the last person she’d use her powers on without consent, but if she can do something to fix things, then it would be okay.

Memories start pouring in.

The most painful ones take place in the world she’s also seen in Ventus’s memories; a desolate world ominously littered with thousands of abandoned keyblades. Vanitas has spent most of his life there as both the whole Ventus and as his own being.

He’s always alone, always training, always _hurting_.

Naminé latches onto his pain, his loneliness, his envy towards his other half, the manipulating ideas Xehanort feeds him through his desperation. She knows this all so well.

Despite his wicked nature, despite the blood on his hands, she wants to help him. She herself is not innocent, understanding the susceptibility wounded hearts have to misguidance. If he was given a second chance where someone would stand by his side, like Sora had done for her, then maybe, _just maybe_ , he would be okay.

She ends the stream of memories, knowing what she must do.

“Hold on,” She speaks softly to him, “I’ll try.”

Pressing her hand into him, the darkness hisses in protest, but she’s able to reach inside and carefully pull his chain of memories out. She pulls and pulls, watching as it grows longer and longer before she begins to weave it through Ventus’s chain.

She pulls his chain firmly around Ventus’s one final time and stands back to check over her work. Entangled, the darkness of Vanitas’s chain makes the light of Ventus’s brighter. In this moment, she realizes she can’t add Vanitas to the list of suffering people Sora must save. This is for the two of them, darkness and light, to figure out together.  This is for the best.

Optimistic, she smiles.


End file.
